Thursday, September 16, 2010

Adding 32bit XP Drivers to 2008R2 Print Server

This should be really easy and straight forward and it actually is if you do it the way I have described here. I was working on an install today and could not remember how to do it as I have not had to deploy printers to xp for a long time. If you search around the web you will see many posts asking "How to deploy 32bit xp drivers from a 2008r2 Server"

There is all sorts of articles out there like using startup scripts and pushprinterconnections.exe

From a Windows XP client:

Logon to a 32 bit XP client with an account that has Administrator rights on the server.
Browse to the server and double click on the Printers and Faxes share. Then Click File and then Server Properties.
Go to the Drivers tab. Click Add. The Add Printer Driver wizard should appear. Click Next on the welcome screen.
If the client already has a driver for the printer you can select the driver from the list otherwise you would Click Have Disk and browse to the directory containing the print drivers from the printer manufacturer. Once you select the printer you will be prompted to select the print environment. Check the box for Intel Windows 2000 or XP.
Click to Finish to complete the process and close the wizard.

Takes a few seconds instead of doing it the hard way! Sean

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